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Protect your hearing at summer music festivals

  June 11, 2012

Across the UK, thousands of people are currently preparing for a summer of music festivals. These events can be lots of fun but the extremely loud music can also put you at risk of tinnitus and hearing loss. To help you protect your hearing, the team of expert audiologists at the Tinnitus Clinic have prepared the following guide for festival attendees.

According to Mark Williams, our Principal Scientific Audiologist, “The noise levels at a live gig or concert can easily exceed 85 decibels. Prolonged exposure to this level of noise can lead to noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus.”

“Of course, most festival goers are not going to have the equipment to measure the decibels themselves. Therefore, as a general guide: if you have to shout to talk to someone two metres away, the noise levels are loud enough to cause hearing damage”.

The best way to protect your hearing is to wear bespoke ear defence products that effectively seal the ear canal. These high quality products contain a patented flat attenuation filter that will protect your ears from the damaging levels of noise, without muffling voices or destroying the fidelity of the music.

The Tinnitus Clinic’s Managing Director, Josephine Swinhoe, tried them out at a concert in Wolverhampton last year. As she said in a recent BBC interview, “I would not have gone into that loud environment without proper ear protection. People think it’s going to damage the quality of your concert-going experience, but it doesn’t. What these hearing devices do is allow the music to come through, but take out all the loud noise.”

You’ll also be doing your ears a favour if you keep your distance from the source of the sound. Stay further back in the crowd, away from the speakers, and you’ll reduce your risk of tinnitus and hearing loss. If you do find yourself in a very noisy environment, try and only stay there for 15 minutes before taking a break in a quieter area.

If you do experience ringing in your ears or any distortion or muffling of your hearing after attending a festival or live gig, this effect may fade over the next few days. However if the tinnitus or hearing loss continues for a prolonged period, you may wish to talk to your GP about the treatments available to you or contact The Tinnitus Clinic for an independent consultation.





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